Global Trade and Cultural Authentication, edited by Joanne Eicher, showcases the complexity and enduring aesthetic and ingenuity of Kalabari artisans. The Kalabari people, most of whom make their homes in the eastern Niger Delta region of western Africa, are renowned for the artistry in working with globally imported textiles and dress for centuries.

The 22 essays in this edited volume feature the work of leading Nigerian and American scholars and offer an in-depth, nuanced understanding of Kalabari textiles, aesthetics, and engagement with past and present global trade networks.

Using dress and textiles as a lens, Global Trade and Cultural Authentication explores the Kalabari people's centuries-long role in the global trade arena. Their economic interconnectedness demonstrates that Africa was never a "dark continent" but, rather, critically involved in a global trade built around Kalabari resourcefulness and imagination.

About the Author

Joanne B. Eicher is Regents Professor Emerita in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. She is editor (with Brent Luvaas) of The Anthropology of Dress and Fashion: A Reader, co-author (with Sandra Lee Evenson) of The Visible Self: Global Perspectives on Dress, Culture and Society, 4th edition, and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion.

Reviews

Dressing from birth through death in spectacular colors, textiles, and accessories from across the world, the Kalabari of the Niger river delta have a long and changing history of incorporating global influences into their lives. Representing team efforts of Joanne B. Eicher and colleagues from Africa and elsewhere through more than half a century of dedicated scholarship, this finely-honed collection turns previous publications from scattered sources about cultural authentication into a cornucopia of riches. Textile scholars, art historians, and everyone interested in dress-cultures within and beyond Africa and the diaspora will revel in this books' in-depth observations.

-- Karen Tranberg Hansen, Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University



Book Information
ISBN 9780253062604
Author Joanne B. Eicher
Format Paperback
Page Count 330
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 680g